Just Like Hang Gliding

Hang Gliders are not focused on a directional agenda. Successful hang gliding is dependent upon being willing to let the wind decide which direction you go next.

This does not mean that people who hang glide don't need to learn what to do to be even more successful at achieving an enjoyable experience. Rather successful hang gliding is about handling the little details of the moment and not about long term destinations.

The experience is the destination.

Successfully marketing a product or service is like hang gliding. The focus needs to be on knowing how to "catch the wind" and how to "glide with the wind."

The wind is the market and these days the market is holding a discussion about each business and each product in ways never seen previously.

Dr. Jeff Cornwall used the metaphor of dancing and wrote a very good article entitled "Follow the Lead of the Market"

The Arrangement of Design

Do you groom your hair?

Do you wear professional attire in a professional manner?

When it comes to personal grooming, most business people understand the importance of presentation.

But there is a difference between design and dazzle.

The right balance impresses because it does not seek to be overly flashy.

The guidelines also apply to many other features of business. For example, the facade of a storefron should be clean, professionally designed but not gaudy.

The brochures which a sales department uses should set a tone which subtly impresses. This is also true of a well designed website.

Seth Godin wrote "Beauty as a signaling strategy."

Growth is still an option

Several new businesses began and started growing during the great depression which became major cultural icons during the 1950s.

Just because the economy is down, does not mean that every business is suffering.

What does it take to be one of the businesses which will enjoy growth during 2009?

Seth Godin wrote: "Top Twelve Ways to Grow Your Business in a Down Market."

Conflicted

FDR said "The only thing we have to fear ... is fear itself."

Unfortunately some people sabotage their own potential for success by being afraid to make the attempt.

There are no guarantees.

Even Fortune 500 companies go bankrupt.

The difference between those who are successful and those who are not, is that the successful know that getting knocked down is just part of life and that you just got to keep on getting back up.

John Jantsch wrote: "What Becomes The Long Way Home."

(Fewer than normal entrepreneurial articles were written in December, the frequency of this column is being reduced to three times a week, MWF, for awhile.)

Strategy Before Tactics

(This is the last article this week.)

Such a simple rule and yet so often violated.

Before you get in your car, don't you usually know where you want to go and what route you plan to take?

When marketing before you start buying collateral and hiring consultants - you need to know where you want to go and approximately what route you want to take.

However, sometimes new interstates open up and sometimes road work requires detours - so you may need to be ready to make course adjustments.

Corte Swearingen wrote "Building a Marketing Strategy Outline."

How to keep your business afloat

What are some proactive things which can be done to keep your business running during the current economic downturn and prepare for the next economic surge?

Frank Reed wrote an article on Moran's Biznology site about surviving the current economic dip.

The Power of Suggestion

The writing of Proposals is an important in advancing the development of your business.

But as in many other business procedures, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.

Crystal Williams wrote: "5 Tips for Writing Great Proposals"

Train Wreck Ahead

Sooner or Later, a disaster will occur in your business. (Unless you decide to quit, in which case why are you reading this column anyway?)

How can you prepare your company to survive if you are temporarily unavailable?

Bonnie Price wrote: "Keep Your Business Humming Amid a Personal Crisis."

Plant Seeds now for Spring bounty

With the economy sagging into a recession, many business owners are uncertain as to how to prepare for the future.

Next Year's success will be due to this year's preparation.

Heather Nolte wrote "Economy Got You Down? 9 Things to Do NOW."

Is the Cheque in the Mail?

While email marketing seems to the beginning entrepreneur, a fantastic avenue for marketing the new venture or product, it is actually a minefield for the uninitiated.

First, you can run afoul of the Anti-Spam Laws.

Second, you can irritate your potential prospects by failing to "follow the rules."

However, if you know how to use email properly as a marketing tool, it can actually be just as great as you imagine it to be. Doing it right frequently requires a guide to show you what to avoid and how to improve your ROI. However, there are some "rules" that are easier to communicate than others.

Jason Drohn provides "10 Quick Tips for Creating Great Email Marketing Lists."

To Be or Not To Be (An Entrepreneur)

Just as I started to write this post, the radio started playing "Staying Alive."

So with the economy on shaky ground and with the political environment about ready to take a different direction - you may be wondering whether or not, now is the time to re-evaluate your occupational plans.

Whether or not you are thinking of closing your business or planning to wait things out, you will probably benefit from reading "How to Recession-Proof Your Career" by Sally Hogshead.

Borrow a page from the wise Politician

Politicians who stay in office for a long career learn the same lesson. Their constituency's voting patterns are not based on the strident special interest group demonstrators.

Sometimes to survive a primary, a politician will focus on pleasing special interest groups, but when it comes to the general election - the wise politician realizes that the independent vote is often the deciding factor. He also realizes that the size of a market segment is not based on the volume of the vociferous few.

As a business, to discover how to please your customer base, you need to discover how large the silent majority is and what the gripes of the silent majority are.

Seth Godin wrote "Listening to the Loud People."

Abandon Ship

The client who never follows through.

The client who always thinks he knows best.

The client who can never focus.

The client who blames others for his own procrastination.

Sometimes there comes a point at which its best to say "Abandon Ship! This account is sinking fast."

John Jantsch wrote "Do You Hold Your Customers Accountable?"

No Presumption of Innocence, Defendant!

You are accused of being a con-artist and a cheat.

The prosecution does not have to establish its case because in this court - there is no presumption of innocence.

This is the Buyer's court and you are the seller. In this court, the seller is presumed guilty.

There are some articles that I almost always skip over and don't recommend. One of thes is the Book Review. But every rule has its exception. If an article could stand on its own even without the Book which is being reviewed then it might just make it to this venue.

Ardath Albee wrote about a book that describes the last century of salesmanship. This book traces many of the traditional methods of salesmanship back to the deceptive practices of a company which was convicted of anti-trust practices before World War I.

Yet their methods of selling became part of the foundation of the culture of American salesmanship. The result is that most Americans find it very difficult to trust any salesperson who they meet for the very first time.

Ardath Albee lists eight of the reasons that twentieth century sales tactics don't work and gives a preview of the tactics which are suggested by the book which she reviews.

Ardath's article is entitled "Salespeople guilty until proven innocent." If you are a business owner or a salesperson, you really should read this article.

Quality or Money

Money has a tendency to cancel out Quality. Although there are definite exceptions to this rule, it is a general tendency.

If a customer buys on the basis of price, the customer will tend to reject Quality to get a good buy.

If an employee leaves one company because of a slightly larger salary at another company, it usually means that either the first company did not provide a quality work environment or the employee does not value nor give quality.

The stereotypical general reaction which occurs when a young beautiful woman marries an older wealthy man is based on the cynical assumption by society that the marriage is not based on quality.

If your company has to rely on cash incentives to retain your best customers, you are probably failing to provide either quality customer service or a quality product or failing in both areas.

Steve Yastrow wrote "A Bribe is not a Relationship."

Now That Was A Mistake!

The company was run great, the product or service was great, the past customers had always been pleased and then the company's reputation was ruined because the event which they held went sour.

But you can avoid that and you can also harvest leads and conversions, if you follow some simple steps for holding a business event.

Shannon Cherry wrote "Effective Publicity, Anyone?"

Didn't even have to ask

Have you ever watched a medical show in which the surgeon holds out his hand and the assistant places the correct instrument in the surgeon's hand without the surgeon specifying which instrument was needed?

Have you ever been a regular patron of a restaurant, where the wait staff knew exactly what your order would be even before you placed it?

If you really want to be successful in client relationships, you should work on providing your clients what they want - when they want it.

Ivana Taylor explains how to achieve this level of service in an article entitled Use Better Delivery To Enhance Your Image Problem

Your 30 seconds with Warren Buffet

Your prospect is late for an appointment.

His attention is focused on where he is going.

Its a 30 second walk to his car.

You have exactly half a minute to convince him to talk with you again

What Do You Say?

Jonathan Farrington wrote "How’s Your Elevator Pitch? Mine’s Pretty Good."

You're just guessing

In the yesterday morning's post, I talked about business stupidity. In this post lets talk about delusionary decision-making.

Oddly enough, many business owners don't realize just how much guessing and "making it up" they are engaged in.

They create marketing positions without surveying the market. They create Value Propositions without any source statistics and they try to sell benefits without knowing what the customer wants.

In other words, many business owners live in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Ivana Taylor was rescued from this land of delusions and wrote an article entitled: "Is What You Say What Your Customers Get?"

Suffer the little owners

Sometimes business owners succeed by accident.

Or maybe that is just by irritated reaction. You see, while outside of the business world I can be tolerant of the follies of others, within the business world I expect a certain degree of professionalism.

Some business owners seem to lack a lot of brainpower. If they have been in business for several years, they must know something - but regarding some of them - "You couldn't prove it by me."

Two of the stupidest attitudes that one encounters among business owners are: 1.) the owner that thinks that he is the expert on every matter, he has ever read or heard anything about and gets upset if a specialist does not do things the way he expects and 2) the one who thinks that a specialist can produce something that will please the owner without the owner taking the time to communicate his desires to the specialist.

PPPLLLLEEEAAASSSSEEE!!!!!!!!

However,

in the real world free-lancers have to try to pull the project along no matter how low the client's IQ may be.

Kristen Fischer wrote an article about dealing with a business owner who won't discuss his wants and then rejects your work. Although Kristin focuses primarily on the writer and graphic industry this article is useful for anyone who is a "creative" freelancer.

Can you appear tonight on our TV news program?

Almost every news program occasionally has guest experts. Have you ever seen your competition featured as an expert? Have you ever wanted to know the steps necessary to take to be viewed by the Mainstream Media (MSM) as an industry expert?

Dan Forbush recently provided an article for reporters and bloggers to reprint as if they had written it - even though it was actually produced by PR News Wire. Even though the article pretends to be written by a different entity, the blog to which this posting links decided to make it clear to the reader that this was a RELEASE from PR News Wire.

The article is entitled: Steps for Turning Your Organization into a Heavily Quoted Source

Trying to wholesale beef to Baskin-Robbins

The title of this post is intended as a "tip of the hat" to Seth Godin. But this post is not really about the book Meatball Sundae, as much as it is about identifying the right market for your service or product.

A retail unit that sells ice cream products, but does not sell any bread and meat sandwiches is not the right market for a salesperson who is selling wholesale beef.

So, how do you determine where to focus your marketing attention?

Ardath Albee wrote: "Who's Your Target Market?"

Preventative Business Health Check

As humans get older, it becomes more important to have preventative health checks. Keeping track of certain physical criteria can help prevent illnesses.

Businesses can also be headed for trouble and yet the warning signs are not always heeded.

Jonathan Farrington wrote: "Ten signs your small business may heading for trouble."

What's in your Ears?

About 15 years ago, I heard a silly children's song called "Beans in My Ears."

The last verse of the song said "I think that all grownups have beans in their ears."

Sometimes in selling, entrepreneurs have beans in their ears. The beans are things like biases and perspectives. Frequently there is a focus on "telling" and not on "answering."

In order to be come good at Answering, an entrepreneur has to first be good at listening.

Jonathan Farrington wrote an article entitled "Secrets of Effective Communication."

Make It Happen

On Tuesday afternoon, my recommendation was about Idea Generating.

Now that you have an idea, how do you effectively make your vision successful?

Ritu Pant wrote an article entitled "Are You Ready To Turn Your Ideas Into Reality?"

Word! What He Said!

Quotations are like money in the Bank, when they are testimonials concerning your company.

One of the most powerful resources that your company has are the testimonials which your customers have given you.

But did you know that HOW you present those testimonials to the public affects how effective the testimonial is?

Dean Rieck wrote: "10 Quick and Simple Ways to Power Up Your Customer Testimonials."

Where Do New Ideas Come From?

Do you ever get what authors call "writer's block?"

Every successful entrepreneur has the ability to imagine a vision and crystallize that vision so that it can be turned into reality.

But every once in awhile those of us who rely on our mind's ability to come up with new ideas, find that we have a dry spell.

Recently, one New York consulting firm did a survey poll in order to discover how business people generate new ideas.

_____________
Today's recommendation requires just a bit more patience than normal. I am recommending a PDF from Idea Champions. However, since this is not a Web Page but rather a download, when you click on the link, you will be taken to a page where you have to click on another link.

"Sorry About That, Chief."

At BNET's Team Taskmaster in this article, in the first sentence, click on the words "which catalysts spurred its clients’ brightest ideas."

Again, This is the LINK.

Avoid Ruining Your Brand During A Bad Economy

During bad economic times, some business are too short sighted. In order to make short term profits they resort to tactics which continue to have negative consequences on their company after the economy recovers.

Steve McKee wrote an article in BusinessWeek entitled "Five Don'ts for Marketing in Tough Times."

Starting A Business Consultancy

Are you thinking of becoming an Independent Business Consultant?

Let me guess. You have been an employee of a Fortune 500 company for over 10 years and you know everything there is to know about succeeding in Business. Right?

Believe it or not - Many people who know Wall Street inside and out, who have opened markets all over the world, who have been on the inside of several M & A deals - stumble when they try to go independent.

Anne Holland, the CEO of MarketingShepa, wrote an article entitled, "Launching A Consulting Career."

Boiling Marketing Down to Five Ingredients

Do you ever wish that an Author, would just "bottom-line" his thesis?

Seth Godin explains what marketing is - in "Five Easy Pieces."

(And he does not include, Price, Place and Promotion.)

Client Driven Sales

In the 1970s, I learned Sales, the wrong way. Oddly enough, I had been doing Sales the right way for years. But I had not been doing it effectively the right way.

The right way to sell, is to place the client in the driver's seat. The salesperson asks questions, offers suggestions, provides advice, does research, but does not attempt to manipulate or overcome the client. The right way to sell, makes the salesperson a resource for the client.

I no longer do Sales, the way that I was taught. I have no desire to persuade someone against their will. But if I can help my clients, I go out of my way to find solutions which make their business more effective. If I can not help, I refer them to someone else - I don't try to get them to buy something which is not in their best interest.

Karen Swim wrote "Five Things Freelancers Should Know About Sales."

Successful Appointment Scheduling

There you are, sitting at a restaurant, five minutes after the scheduled time, wondering if your prospect is going to show or not.

Sound Familiar?

Would you like to radically reduce the number of times that this occurs?

Jared Reitzin wrote Setting Appointments With Clients.

Myth: Marketing Assists Sales, Not Vice-Versa

Sales should be Assisting Marketing. The relationship between these two departments should be a two-way street.

Impossible, you say? No, in many companies it is standard procedure.

The problem is that because modern marketing is a much younger innovation than Sales, it has traditionally been seen only in the role for which it was originally invented. As marketing has grown and developed it has become increasingly obvious in the corporate world that both marketing and sales are equally necessary and that you can't have one without the other.

But change is hard in organizations, much harder than it is in small business. In an organization, change is frequently only achieved once the highest echelons have bought into a vision and successfully communicated that vision through all levels of the organization. The problem is that change has to get past the mindset that the current way of doing things is both the appropriate and correct way. As Alvin Toffler showed in "Future Shock" it is very difficult for many people to adapt to new discoveries.

Some business organizations have discovered (and are taking advantage of the fact) that their sales force is able to accumulate valuable research data while prospecting and selling which should be channeled to marketing because it is more cost effective and efficient than gathering the same data through other means.

Bruce Fryer wrote "A Salesperson's Other Job."

Successful Pertnership

Partnerships are scary.

Your business has reached a point where going it alone no longer makes good business sense. The problem is that you have heard all kinds of horror stories about Partnerships that went sour.

You have a choice. You can either taper back your business and let it stagnate or you can create a successful partnership. But how do you create a successful partnership?

Is a partnership contract sufficient for insuring a successful partnership? No.

A partnership contract is ESSENTIAL, but it will not insure your success if you have not taken steps before entering a contract to make certain that the final outcome of this partnership is not litigation.

Jonathan Fields wrote "11 ways to avoid Entrepreneurial Divorce Court."

Achieving Change

A lot of businesses are based on the difficulty people have with changing. Weight Loss Programs, Stop Smoking products and Organizing Coaches are just some examples of industries built on helping people to change.

But if you are going to be successful as an entrepreneur you are going to need to master the skill of achieving the changes that you have planned.

Dave Pollard wrote Impediments to Change.

Why?

Entrpreneurs frequently talk about what to do or how to do things, but have you ever asked yourself "WHY?" Don't say money, because there are many ways to make money.

I am constantly being solicited by people who want me to get involved in a different business. Usually its a business that they are involved in. Some of these businesses make quite a bit of money.

But you know something? Most of them would not give me any degree of personal satisfaction or sense of true accomplishment.

My mother sold educational products for several years. She was truly "sold" on her product line and upon the benefits which it provided. After she had become very successful and was over a quarter of the state of Indiana, my Dad's work moved them to Florida.

Mom decided to go to work for a financial planning company. She made money, she helped people, but she left after only about five years. It was always my impression that she was more fulfilled by work that helped benefit children in need of an education than she was in helping people plan for retirement.

I wrote all this to ask the Question: What is the purpose of your business?

This is the subject of an article by Idris Mootee

Super Size Your Sales During This Economic Slump

So the economy is slumping, Gas prices are rising, Your favorite candidate is stagnating, but all is not lost.

Your business can continue to enjoy more sales if you focus on seven specific strategies for surviving an economic slump. Brandt Smith wrote "Recessionproof Your Sales."